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University Of Oregon

UO drops branding contract

Pulling out of the $3.4 million agreement is part of a university effort to reduce “duplication, redundancy, waste”

By Diane Dietz

The Register-Guard

Appeared in print: Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, page A1

Michael Schill

The University of Oregon has pulled out of its high-profile three-year, $3.4 million contract with Philadelphia branding and advertising firm 160over90, and is redirecting money toward university academic and research goals, the UO said Wednesday.

The UO also is placing some of its platoons of communicators — in marketing, graphic design, public relations, writing and Web development — under centralized management in order to improve efficiency and coordination, said Kyle Henley, the new vice president of university communications. Previously, many of these communicators have reported to different UO executives in a decentralized system.

New UO President Michael Schill ordered the changes as the first step in a campaign to streamline services and curb the cost of the UO’s central administration.

“There is a vast amount of duplication, redundancy, waste” at the UO, Schill said Wednesday.

Schill told the University Senate on Wednesday that he’s ordering vice presidents to cut 2 percent out of their central administration general fund budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

That will yield $3 million that the UO will use as part of its plan to hire as many as 100 new faculty and 40 new doctoral fellows in coming years.

The UO entered into the 160over90 branding and marketing contract in July 2014 under then-UO President Michael Gottfredson and under the supervision of an associate vice president for communications. Both subsequently left the university.

UO administrators negotiated a Jan. 1 end to the contract, which cost the UO about $40,000 in penalties but saved $400,000 to $500,000 in further spending, Henley said in an e-mail. The UO has paid 160over90 about $3 million in all.

The university was satisfied with 160over90’s work, Henley said.

“It laid a solid foundation and we’re going to continue to use it,” he said. “We have great ideas in the pipeline that we will continue to execute on. ... The outside world won’t see a difference.”

The 160over90 contract was part of a planned five-year, $20 million campaign to elevate the UO academic image nationally.

The branding firm produced an edgy commercial, redesigned the UO’s website and came up with the idea that the UO is marked by inquisitiveness, a “wonderlust” that could be summarized as “We if.”

The UO already has spent $5 million contributed by alumnus Connie Ballmer last year to launch the branding campaign, Henley said.

But the remaining $15 million that the UO initially hoped to raise for more advertising and communications will be used elsewhere, Henley said.

“We have decided to pause, focus on academic and research fundraising, and adjust our communications strategy to carry out the original goals from a variety of funding resources,” he said.

Restructuring university communications is part of a campuswide effort to curb the cost of administration.

The UO is highly decentralized, with many virtually independent units, schools and colleges. Many of these entities have their own communications staffs.

University Ombudsman Bruce MacAllister was astonished when he examined the functioning of several UO units, where he found “decentralization to a confusing extreme,” according to his just-published annual report.

People working in comparable jobs in various units receive wildly differing amounts of pay, he found.

There are “significant gaps, overlaps and inefficiencies caused by redundant operations,” the ombudsman added.

According to Henley, “broad decentralization across the university has weakened the UO’s abilities to achieve administrative coordination, predictable budgeting and realize economies of scale.”

And it’s costing the UO money, Schill said.

“We could get discounts if we bought from one place, but we don‘t. We buy from 30 places,” he said. “We can get better. We can save money.”

Schill is acting to cure the problem, first, in communications by requiring all the marketers, graphic designers and others who now report to UO vice presidents to transition into a centralized communications apparatus under Henley.

Schill hired Henley from Colorado State University to oversee communications. Henley arrived at the UO in September. His annual salary is $225,000.

Henley doesn’t yet know how many additional communicators will come under his purview when the transition is completed on July 1.

Communicators based in athletics, enrollment management and student life are exempt from the change and will remain decentralized.

Some of the marketers and designers who will begin reporting to Henley will remain physically with their former school, college or division, writing about the same subjects. Henley was not able to say whether the transition would lead to a reduction in staff.

“That’s not what this is about. ... We’re focused on improving quality, consistency, service and coordination across campus,” he said.

The change will reduce the need for hiring outside firms for marketing and branding tasks — until now a common occurrence — as Henley organizes the centralized pool of expertise, which can then be shared with the units, the UO expects.

In the future, units will have to get waivers before hiring new communications personnel or contracting for communications tasks, he said.

“This will allow us to determine whether an expenditure is strategically important and whether we have skills to deliver in-house,” Henley said.

When Henley arrived on campus, the university was advertising for a new associate vice president to handle media relations. The position has since been canceled.

The University Communications division has a $6 million budget this year, but that will change as the transition proceeds. No estimates are available for the coming year.